Sustainability Reports—three great reasons why your company needs them

Posted on June 14, 2017.

Technology is progressing in leaps and bounds, simplifying our lives and helping us find faster ways to get stuff done. What is concerning is the effect our increased consumption is having on the planet. Businesses are required to keep track of their finances for reporting on their taxes, but there is no federal mandate for sustainability reporting. That’s why it’s up to responsible businesses to track their own economic, environmental and social performances each year and share that information with others. Transparency leads to accountability. When we all commit to doing business ethically and as socially responsible as possible, Earth wins.

Transparency

Everything isn’t awesome. Being confronted with painful truths is a good motivator for future sustainable improvements. Sometimes implementing new sustainable processes requires you to take several steps back. Other times your efforts pay off dramatically and you have something to celebrate. Sustainability reports invite others to take an inside look into your company’s sustainability practices- the good and the bad. This transparency holds your company accountable and challenges you to improve the ways you inspire your employees, your community, your customers and the environment.

Tracking

What gets measured gets mastered! Communicating key indicators of your sustainability practices is an important tool to verify your successes and your failures. By setting annual sustainability goals, you will have valuable data to guide you and indicate when you are making progress or need to implement changes to improve your efforts.

Tribal Knowledge

As technology eliminates borders and language barriers, we are closer to becoming one large global village. With the help of the internet, it’s totally possible for some little company in the middle of a rural area to impact a large multi-national company based half-way around the world. As humans, we are blessed with intelligence and creativity. By sharing our sustainability efforts with others, we encourage them to begin using their own business more responsibly and perhaps inspire them to innovate a brand new sustainable practice that will benefit the whole planet.

Sustainability reporting is a socially responsible way of creating the change you seek in the world, ensuring transparency in business supply chains and efficiency in company operations. Sustainability reports are your story, but also much more than that. They are a true and honest look at the last calendar year; what went well, what didn’t-- and what you can work on in the future.